Week 1 (3. 10. 2023) The End of Post-Communism?

Optional reading: Vojtěch Šeliga, “S prohrou Babiše skončí postkomunismus, řekl Lacina. Juchelka se mu vysmál do obličeje” (https://cnn.iprima.cz/prohra-babise-bude-konec-postkomunismu-rika-lacina-jako-zeman-a-klaus-ma-vazby-na-rusko-193474) This short article is only optional, for Czech readers. In class we’ll discuss the article’s content.

Week 2 (10. 10.) Yet Another Light that Failed?

Reading: Selections from Ivan Krastev and Stephen Holmes, The Light That Failed: A Reckoning

Week 3 (17. 10.) The End of History I

Reading: Selections from Francis Fukuyama, The End of History and the Last Man

Week 4 (24. 10.) The End of History II

Reading: Prozorov, The Ethics of Postcommunism, ch. 1, “Universal Postcommunism: Kojève and Agamben”

Week 5 (31. 10.) The Grand New Idea I: Civil Society

Reading: Ernest Gellner, Conditions of Liberty, chs. 1, 24, and 28

Week 6 (31. 10.) The Grand New Idea II: Moral (Anti-)Politics

Reading: Selections from Václav Havel, The Art of the Impossible: Politics as Morality in Practice

Week 7 (7. 11.) The Other Side of Civil Society

Reading: Veronika Stoyanova, “The Concept of Civil Society during the ‘Transition’”

Week 8 (14. 11.) The Other Side of Morality

Reading: Georgi Medarov, “The Roots of the Moralization of Politics in Post-1989 Bulgaria and What It Means for the Left”

Week 9 (21. 11.) The Wild East and the Ideal of “Transition”

Reading: Selections from Lea Ypi, Free

Week 10 (28. 11.) The Political Economy of Shock Therapy

Reading: Ghodsee and Orenstein, Taking Stock of Shock, ch. 4, “Counternarratives of Catastrophe”

Week 11 (5. 12.) Old Elites, New Elites

Reading: Eyal, et al., Making Capitalism without Capitalists, ch. 2, “The Second Bildungsbürgertum”

Week 12 (12. 12.) The East Needs Help

Reading: Boris Buden, “Children of Postcommunism” Note: For readers of German, Buden’s full book was originally published as Die Zone des Übergangs: Vom Ende des Postkommunismus. For readers of Czech, the book has been translated as Konec postkomunismu?

Week 13 (19. 12.) The East Still Isn’t West

Reading: Selections from Ivan Kalmar, White but Not Quite

Week 14 (9. 1. 2024): Informal meeting

No reading this week. We’ll meet after hours for an open discussion (time and place TBA)